The goal of the first part of the students' questionnaire was to briefly investigate the background of the second and third year students of the Degree Programme in Tourism in Tampere University of Applied Sciences. This was important in order to find out what kind of people had applied and been accepted to the programme.
The results of the 26 questionnaires showed that 17 of the respondents had started their studies in 2008 and nine of them in 2009. All the respondents were between 18 and 36 years of age, the majority being between 24 and 29 years old. Nine of them were male and 17 female students. More than half of the students were Finnish, the rest coming from eight other countries within Europe, Asia and Africa. The answers of the respondents showed English as the mother tongue of only one student.
The educational background of the respondents corresponded to the indications of the Polytechnics Act (351/2003), which state that applicants with a high school diploma or
equivalent and applicants with former vocational school degree or equivalent are equally eligible for admission to any University of Applied Sciences in Finland. 12 respondents had a high school diploma and five of the respondents a vocational degree, while three respondents had both a high school diploma and a vocational degree prior to the studies in the Degree Programme in Tourism. Only one respondent had a previous University of Applied Sciences degree, whereas five students had a University degree prior to the studies in the programme.
Internet had been the main medium that had informed the respondents about the Degree Programme in Tourism in Tampere University of Applied Sciences, with 21 of the students listing it as the source of discovering the programme. Only a few of the respondents had heard of the programme from their friends, former schools or read about it in the newspaper. The importance of online advertising is something to consider in the future advertising of the degree programme, especially as social media is constantly growing.
When asking the students of their motives for applying to the Degree Programme in Tourism in Tampere University of Applied Sciences, an interest in the tourism business was predictably the biggest reason for nearly all of the respondents. Besides telling about the respondents' personal interests, this can also be a result of the constant growth of tourism field as “one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world” (UNWTO 2011). Other considerable reasons were being able to study in English, studying in an international group, and gaining international job prospects, all of which options were chosen by about half of the respondents.
FIGURE 1. Students' main reasons for applying to the Degree Programme in Tourism.
Interest in tourism business Studying in English Studying in international group International job prospects Obtaining a degree Tuition free education High level of education Other Living in Finland
0 5 10 15 20 25
Reasons for applying
Eight of the respondents also chose obtaining a degree as one of their main reasons in applying for the programme. This raises the question whether these students had the goal of obtaining any university level degree without caring too much about what the subject is or what they were going to actually learn and do in the studies. If this was the case, these students would probably not have cared too much about the quality of the studies or other matters as much as the students who were specifically interested in a challenging international tourism degree programme in English. However this result can also tell about these students' appreciation of university level education as such due to personal opinions or family's or future employer's supposed opinions, or even tell about the attitude of the modern society of valuing education in general.
Being able to study in a tuition free programme was also a motive for four students to apply for the Degree Programme in Tourism in Tampere University of Applied Sciences. All of these respondents were originally from abroad. This was predictable as all the Finnish universities and Finnish universities of applied sciences are tuition free:
therefore the tuition free education would not have been a reason for the Finnish students to choose specifically the Degree Programme in Tourism in Tampere University of Applied Sciences.
In the main three reasons, high level of education was a motive for only one of the respondents to apply for the programme. Perhaps this tells about the respondents automatically expecting high quality education in all universities, including universities of applied sciences, and therefore not even thinking about the high level as one main reason for applying. Also the reputation of the education in Finland is rather good, at least in the earlier years of schooling as Finland has gained attention with its excellent results of the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) tests in the past years (PISA 2011). Still, it is possible more students did not choose this option as one of their main reasons to apply because they did not care about the level of education in the programme as much as they did about other matters, such as the international atmosphere of the programme or getting a degree as such. Living in Finland was not stated as a main reason by any of the students.
The next question concerned the motives of the students to study specifically in English compared to a similar degree in another language. 14 of the respondents mentioned improving their language skills or other language related reasons, such as challenging oneself with English, for their choice of education in English. A degree completed in English was also chosen by seven respondents due to gaining better job opportunities after graduation. Reasons for better opportunities according to these students were both English being the most important business language at present, making the degree internationally well recognised, as well as the internationality of the programme aiming to offer a different and perhaps wider perspective on tourism than a Finnish one. One of these students also mentioned the degree in English preparing the students better for the future working life due to the importance of internationality specifically in tourism business.
Three of the respondents named internationality as such as their main reason to study in English, without mentioning its affect on the future job prospects. For one student internationalization was important due to their background that is not particularly multicultural, one wanted to gain a more international point of view as such, and one simply told having chosen a degree in English because “it is the language to communicate with internationals”, leaving it unclear whether the said communication was to happen during the studies with fellow students or after the studies in the working life.
Three of the respondents had external motives for choosing the degree in English. For all of those three students the studying language had been chosen due to the circumstances rather than their own urge to study in English. Two of these students said that they chose the degree programme in English because it was a language they could understand as opposed to Finnish, and one chose the programme because a similar programme was not available in Tampere in Finnish. However this last student also mentioned having studied in English as a possible advantage later on in working life.
The answers of two students were so vague that it was not possible to understand their original meaning. The responses to these two last questions, the students' original motives to apply for the programme as well as their reasons for studying in English, were used as guidelines when examining whether the respondents' goals had been fulfilled in the programme, in order to analyse the customer satisfaction of the students.